Question about Lamitical and Adam

[GinaMarie]

Adam's psychiatrist is thinking of putting Adam on Lamitical for his mood swings. He also asked if I thought he was having seizures. I told him when he was in Kindergarten (he is in 7th grade now) that his kindergarten teacher (who used to teach special ed) thought he might be having absence seizures because he would blank out at times. Tho his eeg came back normal tho we know about how that doesnt mean anything at times.

What are your thoughts about that.

He was on Adderall XR but we are also changing that to the new Vyvanse because he says that works for 12 hrs instead of the 6-8 hrs. He will start the Vyvanse next week.

I remember about some talking about the lamitical rash.. Am I right about that?
Adam is 12 (will be 13 in Aug). He is 5ft 7 in and weighs about 114 lbs.

GM

[peglem]

Lamictal is one that takes a very long time to build to therapeutic doses- and the rash is more often associated with high doses or raising levels too quickly. When Allie went on lamictal we were given a starter pack...25mg/day for two weeks, then 2 weeks at 50, then 2 weeks at 100. I was comfortable with that. I felt that if there were side affects, we'd be able to react before things got too bad. I think it has been a good drug for Allie- not sure it helps with her mood swings (we're giving it primarily for seizures), I think her moods are more affected by strep and yeast than anything else.

[Jim59]

I've been taking Lamictal for seizure control since 2006. I take 700 and have for the past year. I've never had the rash problem. It is my understanding though that I could still develop it at anytime even though I haven't ever. It's something about metabolic changes in the body that may or may not develop over time. It has been a wonderful medication for me. My wife likes to kid that I'm a better person since I began it. Who knows for sure. Good luck.

[RathyKay]

Oops! Sorry. Should have checked here first.:o:rolleyes:

[peglem]

Just wanted to add: one of the things I like about lamictal is that it doesn't seem to blunt intellect, or "dope up". I guess that could be different for other users, but that is our experience with it.

[rbear4]

Cait just started Lamictal a couple months ago for that double vision problem. We go back to the neuro in a week but I will say that it seems thta the dv was related to seizures as they seem to have gone away with the med change from trileptal to lamictal.

So far we are liking it. The rash can be very very severe. Steven Johnson syndrom I think. But it is rare. We were told that it is very very rare if you start low and add slow. Cait will just be starting her theraputic dose tomorrow. There was no cognitive dulling. I didn't notice any help with mood one way or another but she is still on trileptal which helped with that.

Cait dosen't take meds for moods but for seizures but I did notice a BIG help with that and trileptal actually.

[RathyKay]

Just wanted to add: one of the things I like about lamictal is that it doesn't seem to blunt intellect, or "dope up". I guess that could be different for other users, but that is our experience with it.
I think this is pretty true in general. That's one of the reasons they like to prescribe it over the older meds.

[Jim59]

Peglem is so right. Even at very high doses up to 800 for me there was no cognitive impairment of any kind and no "brain fog". I have had only two minor side effects which quickly passed. In the beginning somewhere between 400 and 500 I encounter minor word find issues that passed within a week or two. When I first started 800 I developed nystagmus temporarily until I went back to 700. The nystagmus was dose related and easily resolved by a lower dose. I'm a retired special ed teacher so I'm very sensitive to cognitive issues and Lamictal has been the best AED I have ever used in my life.